In Focus: Brainerd Museum of Pop Culture Offers Look Back into Past Decades

When you walk into the Museum of Pop Culture in Brainerd, you’re greeted by antiques from the turn of the century, some of which were there when the building originally opened as Brainerd’s first library.

“It was a Carnegie Library building. It was the public library of Brainerd for years,” explained Dan Weber, owner of the museum. “It’s just a beautiful, historic building. The front desk, which was the original library desk where the librarian was, and just the whole building is really nice looking, really unique.”

But once you go downstairs, you’re transported back in time without having to take a DeLorean.

“We’re getting into stuff later: a lot of electronic stuff, video games, computers from all different eras, a lot of different music, VCRs, different video formats, just a lot of different electronic stuff, mainly,” said Weber.

From Pong to Galaga to Super Mario World, there are vintage games and computers here for the whole family.

“Everybody’s reminded of stuff from their childhood. All around the library, whenever they grew up, they find something that reminds them of their childhood and that they like to show their kids and to see again,” Weber continued. “And I was surprised at how much the kids like it. They really enjoy the video games and some of them like reading the books and just looking around. But yeah, the kids seem to like it a lot more than I expected.”

Weber decided to open the facility to share his love of collecting old electronics.

“I’ve always liked collecting older stuff, especially electronics, and I’ve amassed quite a collection of it and thought that this building would be a great place to display and let other people enjoy it,” he added.